• The Masters starts on Thursday amid huge excitement
• Rory McIlroy goes toe-to-toe with a rejuvenated Tiger Woods
Every sporting generation regards its own as the most worthy. Golf has changed hugely over the decades – in playing style, equipment standard and monetary value – but a legitimate argument remains; just what has been the sport's golden age and, more pertinently, is it happening now?
There has never been a shortage of excitement surrounding a Masters but the 76th arrives amid fevered anticipation, particularly at the prospect of a rejuvenated Tiger Woods going toe-to-toe with Rory McIlroy, who collapsed in such spectacular style here a year ago.
When Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, who along with McIlroy have been embroiled in a battle for the world No1 spot in the past few months, and the 2010 champion, Phil Mickelson, are thrown into the mix, the surface of competitiveness is only scratched. It is the sign of an epic era that both storylines and potential major winners appear at every turn.
As routine, fans look back seven decades to when Sam Snead battled with Ben Hogan. Later the dominance of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player wasthe game's major attraction. By the late 1980s Europe celebrated supremacy through Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo. Then it became the turn of Tiger Woods. After his recent victory at Bay Hill, playing partner Graeme McDowell remarked that "it was good to have a front-row seat to watch perhaps the greatest who has ever played the game do what he does best".
Not everyone believes the raft of players competing at the highest level now marks this, fresh, era as iconic.
"The top players were here 20 years ago, weren't they? It's really difficult to compare generations," argues Westwood. "In fact, it's impossible. So what is the point in doing it?"
Westwood's shrugging-off of what he regards as a non-subject, though, will not halt the debate. Difficult as it is to draw comparisons between successful generations in any sport, it is something which is done frequently.
Westwood agrees, nonetheless, that there are routinely a raft of contenders at modern competitions – this Masters included. "In theory everyone can win, couldn't they? But you can narrow it down to 30 people, probably whose games are suited," he added. "Some people are not going to be long enough here. Some people won't be on their game this week. So you could probably pick out 30 guys, I'd say."
That stance strikes a chord with Player, who was part of a celebrated period of golf in which he, Palmer and Nicklaus competed so intensively and successfully for the biggest prizes. To Player an increased batch of likely major winners does not necessarily equate directly to quality.
"When we played there were a lot of major winners but those people also went on to win two, then three, then four," Player said. "I have consistently said that to win on the tour today is tougher. Whereas then 60 people could win any tournament, now it is 100. But it was tougher for Jack Nicklaus than for Tiger Woods to win major championships. There were more people to compete in Jack's time because they had already done it. Now, there are great players but a lot of them haven't got that experience of winning a major."
To Colin Montgomerie, Player's thoughts endorse rather than douse the sense that these are special times. "This compares with the era of our European dominance in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I include Fred Couples and Greg Norman in that, added to our top five Europeans," Montgomerie said. "So we have been 20 years since we had anything like this. With Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, there was three of them. Now there are about 15 of them and it is more interesting."
Woods is now 36 but Ken Brown, the respected commentator, still regards this spell as effectively under the ownership of the former world No1. "This is a great golfing era, there is no doubt about that and it is driven by Tiger Woods," said Brown. "If he wasn't in town, it might not be regarded as so brilliant because everyone is compared to how outstanding he has been. He has set a standard, set the bar as high as anyone has managed to do it; anyone who competes and compares with him knows they are doing that against the very best.
"When you go back through time, the spell of Nick Faldo, Seve, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam for example was a terrific time for European golf. That was led by Seve. There is usually a pioneer at the front who the others are trying to aim for.
"I think in America they would look at Palmer, Nicklaus and Player doing so much to bring the game towards what it is today. In Europe people would think otherwise but now you actually have a world game. America, Europe and Asia all have outstanding talent."
Only the brave would predict which continent the winner of this season's first major will hail from, let alone what country. Which in itself pays a tribute to the strength of golf's class of 2012.